Chile is showing the way!

What a good news to start 2012, Chile decided that all new phone have to be sold unlocked! You read correctly, all phones, smart, dumb, HTC, Apple, Samsung and all others have to be factory unlocked before being sold to customers.

All this starting on January 16 2012. All phones sold before this cutting date will be freely unlock-able through the website of the mobile operator on which it is in use. Just access your provider page, enter you phone number and IMEI 15 digits and you should receive your unlock code shortly.

I still wonder how Apple will react to that and how the procedure will work for the freshly launched iPhone 4S. I strongly believe this procedure should be an standard in the industry: when you buy a phone isn’t it YOURS? Should not you be able to change to any provider without begging for a code? Even worst in the case of Apple, you’ll never get this code even when your contract is over, you’ll just inherit a brick!

Let’s hope more countries adopt this “common sense” legislation and Happy New Year 2012!

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Sources :

Android Community: http://androidcommunity.com/all-cellphones-in-chile-must-be-sold-unlocked-20120103/
Wayerless: http://www.wayerless.com/2012/01/desbloqueo-en-chile-esto-debes-hacer-para-desbloquear-tu-telefono/